Tigers do just enough to edge BayStars

NAGANO – Ryota Arai opened the scoring with a fourth-inning RBI single, and Keiichi Hirano and Takashi Toritani added back-to-back RBI hits in the eighth as the Hanshin Tigers beat the Yokohama BayStars 3-1 on Tuesday.

Yasutomo Kubo (4-5) allowed four hits, struck out two and walked two as Hanshin won its second in a row. Tigers closer Kyuji Fujikawa allowed a run on three hits in the ninth at Nagano Olympic Stadium but closed out for his 16th save.

Hiroki Uemoto had a leadoff triple in the eighth, setting the stage for Hirano’s RBI double and Toritani’s run-scoring single.

Daisuke Miura (8-7) took the loss after issuing three runs in seven-plus innings.

Giants 9, Dragons 0

At Nagoya Dome, Hirokazu Sawamura (9-8) threw seven scoreless innings, and the Giants bats banged out 15 hits to come within one win of clinching a magic number for the Central League championship title while sending Chunichi to its third loss in a row.

Yoshinobu Takahashi had an RBI single in the fourth off Yudai Ono (3-1), and Shuichi Murata and Shinnosuke Abe added a two-run double and a three-run double in the fifth and sixth, respectively. Hisayoshi Chono hit a leadoff homer to highlight a three-run eighth.

Swallows at Carp — late

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Marines 3, Hawks 1

At Fukuoka’s Yahoo Dome, Katsuya Kakunaka hit a go-ahead two-run homer off Softbank lefty Hiroki Yamada (6-8) in the second inning, and Chiba Lotte’s Seth Greisinger went the distance to win his first decision since June 6.

Kakunaka turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead on his shot over the left-field wall. Saburo Omura added an RBI single in the eighth. Greisinger (7-6) scattered four hits and walked none in his first complete game of the season.